Dentists aren’t exactly experts when it comes to social media marketing. That said, a savvy dentist focused on building their business is naturally going to want to hire a social media consultant or firm to help get things going. The reality is, dentists are looked to as experts on everything surrounding oral health and cosmetic dentistry. They should be. They go to school for longer than the average person. There is tons of pressure on them to graduate with high marks and put in lots of practical on-the-job work before they can run their own clinics.

Having to put so much effort into their dental careers, there is no way that a committed dentist or dental professional is going to be a social media master. If they consider themselves to be a digital native who loves to use all the day’s key platforms (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok etc.). Statistical research proves that business owners struggle when it comes to gaining followers on their social media pages more than they struggle with any other aspect of online marketing.

That’s why we not only recommend hiring an expert digital marketing agency in Toronto or your local area to handle promoting all the best dental tips your business may have on social media. But even before doing that, you can learn from a team of content marketing experts and social media wizards with years of experience serving dentists.

Enjoy a list of tips and tricks that will help dentists crush it with robust social media marketing strategies.

Acquire Positive Reviews, And Share them!

Getting more positive customer reviews is probably both the easiest and most important expert tip when it comes to digital marketing for a local dental business. Really, any business that focuses on local foot traffic should collect customer reviews on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp.

Google My Business is a Google-run platform that allows business owners to register their contact information and address on Google, publish blog posts, videos, and photos, and collect and respond to customer reviews. The higher the review the dentist gets, the higher they rank when someone searches for “Toronto Dentist”. Of course Google does allow dentists to buy the top spot in search results, but that can cost thousands of dollars. Not to mention that most people click the first organic search result in a given list of results before they click on a sponsored ad. Psychologically, a local resident with an immediate need for a dentist is looking for results and reviews that are genuinely reliable.

Facebook reviews on a dentist’s Facebook fanpage will also show in a Google search, so it’s also important to monitor. The reason why collecting reviews on a Google My Business is more important and effective is simply because GMB results are more prominently displayed in results and the listing itself makes the dentist’s office address and phone number more accessible. A user can be looking through their phone, click the phone number and bam! They’re in!

So with that being said let’s get to the expert advice.

Social Reviews are the Biggest Key

Bethany Spence from Exposure Ninja swears by five-star reviews on social media platforms as a way of getting more customers through the door. Here’s what she has to say about the importance of getting feedback from people who are already sold on your local dentist’s services.

“Getting a great five-star rating on social platforms is crucial for dentists. Reviews are seen as a major factor when purchasing any product but when it comes to invasive treatments the quality of service and previous patient experience is crucial. As well as maintaining a five-star rating, reviews with attached before and after images are incredible sources of social proof – as such, you should try to provide before and after photos to all clients in case they want to use them to talk about your brand.”

Spence also recommends leveraging influencer marketing as a way to promote a particular dentist. Have somebody with a few thousand local followers partake in a free cleaning. Make it a video, take some photos and promote them all on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Photos can potentially be used as Faceboook ads if they’re done in before and after style.

Spence says, “Creating brand awareness on social media doesn’t just mean working on your own account. Dentists often invest in influencer campaigns….sponsored videos…to get compelling testimonials floating around online. In fact, this can be even more effective than publishing in-house content as viewers have already built a relationship with influencers and naturally trust their advice. As well as paying for sponsored content, dentists often use influencer photos to gain attention through Facebook and Instagram ads to give context to the product.”

More on Using Photos and Video Content

The most profitable dental procedures in our modern world include things like crown or bridge-related procedures, oral surgeries and cosmetic dentistry. Cosmetic dentistry encapsulates things like braces or Invisalign treatment, veneers etc… The least profitable activity at a dentist’s office is a checkup or teeth cleaning.

However, all of these procedures can make great pieces of content if the focus is the before and after effect. Marketing specialist Jakub Kliszczak says the before and after approach is what he finds the most effective when it comes to publishing photos and videos on social media, or crafting them into Instagram/Facebook stories.

“The before-after works really well whenever the change is tangible. And when it comes to whiter teeth and proper occlusion these are the things that are easy to show. Therefore create visuals showing the effect of your treatment and show how their look and health be better if they use your service.”

YouTube is one of the top social media channels for dentists. If you want to show your expertise and make your audience trust you, creating a YouTube channel where you publish short informational videos about your products and services might help set you apart from your competitors and position you as a leader in your local area.

Make Content in a Series Format

Dental hygiene is a daily task most of us take for granted until we end up in a dentist’s chair with a big problem on our hands. That’s why lining up a series of tutorials to publish day by day or week by week is a great idea for a dental office. It shows every step of the progress a good qualified dentist can make for a patient who is dealing with pain or suffering because they don’t like the aesthetics of their teeth.

Luana Spinetti, a marketing expert, recommends four different types of content that can be grouped together in a series for maximum effect:

• Create and post dental care tutorials for people to comment on and share on news feeds. Works well on Facebook and Youtube.
• Get permission from your happiest patients to use their case studies as examples of all the amazing work the dentist is doing. Discuss what the dental issue is, what caused it, how the dentist took care of the problem, and especially how to prevent the problem in the first place.
• For Instagram and Twitter, post smaller single dental care tips that are easier to digest. Great visuals work well when trying to get to the point and make an impact.
• Publish polls related to oral health and get users to engage. This works best on Twitter but can also work well for social media.

Spinetti says following these tips is a great start, but to really make things happen, a dentist’s digital marketing agency has to find a way to synergize all of the great social media content with the content being published on the dentist’s website and blog.

“Connecting social media to the dentist’s website or blog is critical to the success of each campaign. In fact, a social media post (especially a tweet or an Instagram photo) can only support a limited number of words or characters, too little to fully educate the end user on the topic at hand. That’s why each social media post should offer an appealing glimpse into the content and link to a page on the dentist’s website where existing and/or new patients can read the rest of the information.”

Advertising and Promoting Social Media Posts

One of the biggest secrets of growing social media influence for any dental brand or influencer is that it costs money, just like any other form of advertising. For an entire generation of working professionals who spend 10 years in post-secondary education to master their trade (and we’re not just talking dentists), this is really difficult to wrap one’s head around.

The reality is, the days of building an extension of anyone’s brand on social media without using paid ads are pretty much dead. Paying for ads is a must! Spinetti agrees. Spending money to promote a post is necessary, but it doesn’t mean necessarily having to invest a fortune right away. The best thing to do is start with a small budget of a few dollars a day and acquire some insight into who’s looking at posts, and whether they’re engaging with them.

Once a proven method for gaining traction and ultimately new patients is established, the agency can scale up the advertising budget to really accelerate foot traffic walking through the door.

Although the ultimate goal for a dentist is to get more local attention and book more appointments, Spinetti actually recommends more of a subtle approach to choosing which content to advertise.

“A good way to advertise a dentist’s social media post is to promote it using each social channel’s proprietary advertising system, rather than creating a new advertising post from scratch.

Self-contained tips, polls and success stories are the best candidates for an advert, as they don’t come with a salesy vibe that might put many users off.”

Turn Social Media Marketing Tips Into Dental Cleanings

Hopefully, this blog post gives dentists some good insight into how to increase their social media presence and build a larger client base. While some dentists or marketing newbies might be tempted to go it alone, the best thing to do is hire an experienced digital marketing agency to help you do it right. Each industry is different and requires a different set of skills and strategies when it comes to digital marketing. At Little Dragon, we have years of experience working with dentists all over Canada to help them acquire more patients online. Contact us today to learn how we can help you achieve great results.

Jack Choros

Jack has been in the internet marketing space for 10 years. He enjoys writing and watching the Toronto Raptors.